Book 3: Chapter 66: Lord: To Plan for Sinister
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*Zoom*

“Heya Maova, daughter, all that” Kaa-san greeted as she teleported into the living room. Rosia is elsewhere at the moment and only her and I are here right now.

“What is it Kaa-san?” I asked seeing that she randomly teleported, probably some more information she came up with.

“Well I did talk about Belphi before and now I’m here to say she’s battle ready and ready to help, you know to make things more interesting for the two of you” She brought up that fact I kinda forget about, nothing really came of it for a while now.

“Interesting? Kaa-san what am I supposed to say to that, no idea how she can even be integrated in the narrative at this point” I said a bit dismissively seeing how unlikely that is.

“Well don’t you have some sort of major event in mind? It is your story to tell” She asked. Major event… Right, I do have that in mind.

“Well yeah, but I don’t see if she’ll be on board with it” I replied. I don’t think she would fight any humans, or at least now those she at least knows a bit like those at the academy.

“Oh I suggested she get on the human side before disappearing at the end, so she may have a part in but won’t actually have to do anything she doesn't want to” Kaa-san elaborated. I guess that makes sense, she wouldn’t try to join in otherwise.

“I see… How would she be integrated into the plan then?” I muttered not being too sure of what to do.

“Well what is your plan first of all” Kaa-san pointed out. Right I didn’t even tell her about it.

“Well I was thinking of doing the warning announcing bit again since they seem a bit too inactive, they need a bit more motivation” I said explaining the intention of this event. I really am not sure how the specifics are going to go at this point.

“I see. Maybe she can join in to save the day or whatever when the crisis happens. Would be nice if you can go talk to her yourself to discuss this, I can really only interfere so much, since it’s not my story” Kaa-san suggested. 

“I guess I could do that. I have a date in mind but nothing besides that” I noted. Like her being in it wouldn’t be an issue I would say, it’s more the case of how she would get in, and how the trouble presents itself. Mainly I would need to think of where it would happen, either at the castle or the academy… If I did it at the castle then it would put more pressure on those higher ups which might cause some trouble for the citizens and workers, if I did it at the academy then the severity of it to the overall mass would be lessened, but aimed at those I actually have the most interest in.

“Any concrete idea at all?” Kaa-san asked, no doubt seeing me clearly trying to think things through.

“Not much really. Torn between trying to think of where to do it, then going from there wouldn’t be that much trouble. Just one of two places...” I admitted. This is pretty much the most difficult decision in coming up with a plan. Maybe there’s a way to do it if I… I don’t know, have someone help with one place while I deal with another…

“Why not just have Rosia deal with one of them?” Kaa-san suggested, would that work?

“I mean I trust her to do as I say at least, but I know she won’t tolerate anyone standing up to her if it inconveniences her in any way, she’s a bit ill tempered honestly, if not bombastic in the slightest” I explained. It’s hard to see her playing along particularly well, while she isn’t suspected by anyone at this point it’s clearly more of her title giving her a pass, without it and in the villain role her rather ruthless side is pretty darn clear, I wouldn’t even be surprised if she plays into it too much for anyone’s good.

“Well that’s true enough… maybe I can try to help with that. Maybe try to instruct her on what to not do, I still have some communication stones about” She suggested. That’s really considerate of her but still I need to talk to Rosia about it first.

“Well I’ll keep that in mind. I have to talk to Rosia about it first” I replied feeling like I shouldn’t jump the gun when it’s supposed to be a pretty big deal. I should maybe focus on other things first of all.

“I see. Well call me if you need me, don’t try to force yourself in or whatever” She said jokingly as she walked away. 

*Zoom*

Guess that’s the end of that. Well at least I got her support at least. What was I doing again? I think she barged in before I really got to think of what to do today. Probably just going to interact with some people for today and now much else, maybe Reiza will be around this time.

I should wait for Rosia to come back first, she noticed how frenzied the prisoners were so she went down there to ‘punish’ them. Well I won’t deal with that, she can deal with it and come back in time. Actually I could try having the prisoners involved as well, trying to control them, since that’s one of my powers and all, haven’t really tried it.

I’ll just laze around on the sofa waiting for her to return then, shouldn’t be that long before she comes back.

 

#####

 

*Zoom*

“Welcome back Rosia” I greeted, seeing her teleported back here.

“Yeah I’m back. Let’s just go to that castle before anyone suspects anything” She said as I stood up and got over to her.

“Hear ya” I said tapping her shoulder.

*Zoom*

And now we’re in Rosia’s room right here in the castle, and with no one in here thankfully.

“So what’s the plan for you today? Anything I need to know?” Rosia asked as she tilted her head.

“Well maybe just something I was thinking of doing but not really have any clear plan just yet. Remember the stunt we pulled in the beginning of all of this?” I asked. She probably does but might as well ask for certainty.

“The one when those otherworlders are summoned?” Rosia asked in return, sounding a bit unsure. I guess there are multiple points that can be considered the start of all of this.

“Yeah that one” I answered.

“Yeah I do, why?” She answered the initial question, not really catching on.

“Well I was planning to do another one with how much these people are boring me. Maybe I’ll have you disguise yourself and play double duty of instigating. You know like what I did but maybe at a different place” I said and began explaining what I’m talking about.

“Hmm… As in me antagonizing people and causing some damage?” She asked for some clues.

“Yeah basically that. I was hoping you can cause a bit of chaos in the academy, if not really hurting anyone important if possible… actually just not causing much of what one would call a casualty. Maybe severely hurting but not actually killing, maybe destroying a wall or two but not an entire building, that sort of thing” I said trying to tell her what to do or don’t. If she were to be too destructive then it would heavily demoralize those ‘heroes’... Also Reiza will most likely try to kill us if we actually cause deaths, and guaranteed if it’s one of the otherworlders. It’s rather risky if we actually cause a lot of damage and she realizes it.

“Sounds rather mild honestly, just flat out a headache to do, as someone to be in a role of someone evil, one would think I would actually kill, that I’ll tear everything down” She quickly complained. Yep, someone as clearly naturally evil as her would, she just wants destruction and suffering if it’s easier, and she wants to do things her own way even if it’s evil. Maybe if the less evil actions are easier she’ll do it, this time it clearly isn’t.

“Well maybe reign it in at least, you know effort is needed to make things work right? I would appreciate it if you could do that” I replied. 

“I’ll try, I won’t disappoint you if that’s what you want” She answered. Well I did expect her to accept regardless and try to reassure me, and hopefully the end result will be as she said. 

“Ah. Right. Kaa-san will help out as well if you find it hard to do without input, you can go ask her for help” I said seeing as that conversation happened not that long ago and might as well tell it right now.

“I see. I’ll go talk to her later then” Rosia replied. Like always her rather dry tone makes it hard to tell if she’s sincere with her words, honestly the link of souls makes it very doable to tell if she actually is sincere.

“Thank you Rosia… Let’s talk about this later, there’s something else I have to do today. Not much but still something I have to do” I said as I walked over to the door.

“By the way what day are we doing this?” Rosia suddenly asked as my hand was on the knob. I turn to look at her one more time to answer the question.

“In at least two days from now. If anything inconvenient happened maybe we’ll delay it. We’ll see soon enough. See you later” I said to her before I left her room.

Walking about in the corridor there is one place here I should visit, a place that I would like to control for myself.

Walking downstairs, onto the west side of the castle, somewhere… Here it is. It’s roughly near the corner of the northwest turret. Now should I knock on the door or barge in?... Well might as well be polite here.

*Knock* *Knock*

I knock on the door and wait for a response, which comes quickly. The one who responded looked rather enthusiastic as he noticed my presence. Silently look at me with approval and walk out of the way.

I silently walked in as people are just starting things up at this point. They all quickly took notice of me and began scrambling, probably for more of those ancient scriptures. A bit off putting with how they react but if it means being able to control them easier then I’ll put up with it.

“Jeez, how enthusiastic of you all” I commented sarcastically seeing how active they suddenly became. I could see the head mage among them as they’re frantically gathering what they want me to do.

“Sorry for the sudden… panic. I hope you can pardon that” The head mage said as the scriptures are on the table and him approaching me to express his apology, trying to cater to me.

“Regardless of how you feel about it doesn’t really matter. I think I’ll go check out more of these if you don’t mind” I said as I walk over to the scriptures and see if there’s anything I could tell them that wouldn’t give too much away.

While mana from foreign source not of one’s soul or environment can be fatal if the resonance between the soul is great or the one transferring the soul is particularly skilled at mana manipulation the risk of death can become zero” No that’s not important to them at all. I don’t think Kaa-san ever told me about this beyond the danger of foreign mana. Wait I just muttered that out loud didn’t I?

“What did it say?’ The head mage asked, sounding his expectation. This is really not important at all and I have to explain it.

“Well. It expands on the concept of foreign mana. If one is skilled enough with it then transferring without a medium is possible. Also if the two souls doing the transfer are similar enough” I translated it for them, and really there isn’t much use here.

“I see…” He muttered not sounding all too excited, I wouldn’t be as well, too much of an irrelevant piece of information. I could really only see Rosia and I using this fact at all. Let’s go look at a different topic… Let’s see…

How skillful one is with mana will affect how much they can bend the reality of the world. Just affinity with certain elements wouldn’t go that far unless one considered the time and space elements” I muttered seeing this line that I do think Kaa-san talked about at some point, I think…

“This one is?” The head mage said anticipating something more enlightening.

“Essentially the power to bend reality isn’t due to one’s affinity with magic alone, how skillful they are with magic casting in general also attributes greatly” I translated. It’s certainly more thoughtful and more applicable knowledge for certain, if not groundbreaking. Time to look through some more for a while…

 

#####

 

Now what time is this? I’d say about the same time I came here yesterday. Still I don’t want to stay here for too long, and I still haven’t tried to demand anything just yet.

“Alright. I think that’s enough for today” I said, sounding tired of the situation. All of them suddenly looked a bit down and disappointed clearly.

“Is that all?” The head mage asked as if I owe him something. Time to point out how she shouldn’t be saying that.

“Seriously? I help translate these scriptures for you and now you’re disappointed I don’t do as much as I needed? You sure are complacent” I said in a disdainful tone. He suddenly looked rather taken aback and regretful. 

“I-I’m sorry” He said clearly trying to earn my forgiveness.

“This is all just ridiculous, can’t you at least do something for me instead of the opposite? What a terrible joke to not give back to someone who helped you with such an impactful discovery” I said, making the tone of my voice harsher and sharper, tugging at their conscience and fear.

“I-I truly am sorry!” The head mage said, even bowing slightly to me.

“Just do something for me and maybe I’ll consider helping you again” I said as I began walking away.

“What is it?” He and others asked trying to gain a favor from me they should’ve given out already.

“I need a few exposable people, I need to conduct an experiment that will help with our force against the Demon Lord, those higher ups take their sweet time to deliver them to me, to pester them about it, we don’t have enough time to be dallying about” I said as I am close to the door. As I finished saying that I walked out the room. Now time to go somewhere else to get a change or two going.

 

#####

 

“What do you want with me. The companion of the Hero?” The principle asked as he looked at me with a bit of stress. No idea what this guy’s deal is, the old man isn’t here anymore that’s for certain, no idea if he died or what.

“I was thinking of changing the way the otherworlders are trained. Seriously it has been a slow burn that is not getting hot. Just either here or rarely at the camp. How about you try having them go do some actual fighting with stakes? They’ll be useless in battle otherwise” I said keeping the tone serious and sinister.

“And who exactly will take responsibility for such a dangerous venture?” He asked in return.

“I will. Trust me, I wouldn’t let them get all that injured, and certainly not death” I said while glaring at him hoping for a good to go response. He looks like he’s sweating and stressing out from such a simple if possibly disastrous choice.

“Very well. I’ll come up with something, please wait for a day or two” He said clearly hoping I would stop glaring at him and leave him alone for now.

“Hope you live up to that” I said a bit condescending as I left.

 

#####

*Knock* *Knock*

Is she here now? No? Seems like she really just isn’t around right now… I wonder if my promise to her about how I’ll look after them for her has anything to do with it… Oh now that I think about it if I even let them get harmed wouldn’t she will certainly scream bloody murder at me? I really should talk to her before then if that’s the case, so I can possibly come up with some excuse just before then… Or maybe I can risk it? I’m stronger than her, Rosia possibly stronger than her, so I could risk her either not raging or anticipating her attack…

Hm? There someone over there peeking from their room. If my eyes didn’t deceive me then that was a blonde girl just shutting the door seeing me knocking on Reiza’s door. Why I wonder? I’m pretty sure the otherworlders don’t live in the room on that side of the corridor.

Odd but I’m not really worried about that, let’s just move on to something else, soon I have to continue the normal and mundane training, and for now I should go talk to others… Maybe I’ll go talk to that boring teacher again.

 

#####

 

“You’re here again?” The teacher asked, trying not to sound demeaning despite what he said. Since yesterday it’s clear he’s a bit wary of me despite how fearful I am.

“Well I would like to know your opinion on something” I said, sounding a bit alarmingly sinister admittedly. 

“W-What is it?” He responded sounding rather worried. His reaction is a bit more interesting now.

“Sometimes risks are needed for growth, do you think it’s needed?” I said as if implying something sinister.

“...It’s not something I wanted, perhaps necessary, but I’d rather minimize the risk even if it’ll slow the growth” He answered rather reasonably.

“Okay then… will a loss accelerate people’s growth?” I asked another question, a much more sinister question. I only just thought of it just now but… Hmm… I think I got an idea.

“It… Why such a disturbing question?” He asked back clearly distressed with such an obviously sinister question.

“Just tell me” I said in a no-nonsense tone at the derailment. He budged slightly as he continued to prepare the lesson.

“It’ll help, but is the pain left for those who are still here worth it?” He answered and asked back again.

“Hmm. Fascinating. Well I’m glad you at least humor me on this day” I said as I stand back up and walk over to the day.

“What’s your motive here? Why sudden change in tone?” He asked as I am ready to walk out the door.

“Doesn’t matter, you barely mattered to me” I said as I walked out and dismissed a question he soon won’t have to consider. Now then, time to go elsewhere and soon come back to do the usual training session.

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